reviewer no longer to be confused by his notes
La Cieca’s cher public — and music lovers around the world — won’t have Bernard Holland to kick around any more. The veteran classical music reviewer is leaving the New York TImes after 27 years, though to us who read him regularly it has easily seemed twice that. Holland is one of about 85 NYT newsroom employees who have accepted a buyout offer intended to streamline the paper’s staff.
Remaining full-time classical music reviewers are Anthony Tommasini and Allan Kozinn; the paper also publishes reviews by James R. Oestreich (editor of classical music and dance) and freelancers Steve Smith and Vivien Schweitzer. [via musicalamerica.com]
Mrs. Claggart, I am laughing myself silly:
” She scared the audience to death as she came running downstage at her first entrance; people thought she was going to pole vault the orchestra pit and kill hundreds.”
I’d say that Jessye’s prime lasted at least 20 years, from the early 70s to the early 90s. She is in marvelous voice on the Met Ring video which was from the late 80s (1989?).
Can’t agree with you there — until the mid 80′s (83/4?) I thought her production was tight, ‘held’ and not infrequently uncertain. Certainly she had not secured the rolling middle range she had at her best, nor was she confident on top. At her best in those years she seemed like a contralto — for the difference in size and richness of the lower octave was striking. I’m not saying she was bad or in trouble, but finally I didn’t think much worked for her. One felt there was far more voice in there than she was letting out and she was compensating with too much reliance on the white tone (sic), and these strange mannerisms.
But something happened around the Troyens. By the time she got to doing both parts she was overwhelming, she threw caution to the winds, let her voice out, dared big high notes and didn’t care if they weren’t perfect and above all abandoned herself to the emotion. As I mentioned on Hell, her Jocasta alone was a stunning example of outpouring, there were some great Sieglindes (and some not so great), the first run of Ariadne was amazing except for the very top and one could forgive that, and there was a run of Gurrelieder(s) that was thrilling. But surely by 1990 all had begun to fade; she lost weight and her voice got smaller and less reliable. The mannerisms (amazingly absent in Berlioz) returned, and so did her physical inhibitions, something she had put aside when she was bigger for those few years, She also began to have intonational trouble which I had not noticed before. I am talking BTW about live performances, not CDs or LPs, though I thought a fair number of those were so-so. The last great thing she did was Bluebeard’s Castle and Erwartung. The Kundry (91?) was frankly poor in all ways. It didn’t help when in act three there were these daisies everywhere on stage and when she stepped on a group they gave under her, then popped up as she moved on — I have, sorry to say, never seen a funnier third act of Parsifal. And the Makropulos (94–95?) was a return to the bad old days. In that six or so years were some great concerts — I’ll never forget her handling of the end of the Ives dyptich ‘Memories’ — the second song climaxes with an endless winding vocalise in slow tempo — everybody breaks it for a breath — she didn’t, spinning the sound around the hall until one was sure it would break but it didn’t and it was gorgeous.
Caballe made a recording of Lucia where she sang it as written (but with flute rather than the glass harmonica). I believe Jesus Lopez Cobos conducted. As much as I love the “traditional” high coloratura in the part, I would rather hear the part well sung as written, than badly sung too high.
Mrs. Claggart: I only know early Jessye through recordings (almost exclusively from the studio). Your comments have made me want to pull out a early 70s live Aida and give it a listen. I think it’s the only live opera recording I have from her early years.
Sanford: Yes and Carreras was her Edgardo.
I bought a very good Jessye Les Troyens CD where she sang both Cassandre and Didon at the MET. I got it at Academy Records in Chelsea. It’s the 2/18/84 broadcast. I’m not sure who put these CDs together. The sound isn’t perfect – it’s a recording from the radio broadcast, with Peter Allen doing the narration, but the performance is thrilling. (The bonus on the CD is a live performance of La Morte de Cleopatre with the Phila Orch/Muti in a radio broadcast.)
On a side note, I first fell in love with opera while watching Jessye’s Sieglinde in the televised MET ring in the early 1990 or thereabout. My life was changed at that moment, with Jessye as my first love. (I hope she doesn’t mind my current infatuation with Stephanie Blythe.)
So, off topic.
SFO this summer – Das Rheingold, with Mark Delavan and Jennifer Larmore as Fricka. Better still, Ariodante with Susan Graham, Ruth Ann Swenson, and Ewa Podles.
New York on the other hand, has Die Soldaten, which is aparently a Disney ride. The seating is on tracks and moves throughout the performance.
Discuss
I’ve got a recording of Jessye singing Aida, taken from a live radio broadcast in France (Paris I guess) with Cossotto as Amneris. I think it is around 73 or maybe 74. She certainly does it, but she doesn’t seem comfortable in the part. Certain sections are too high and in the big moments her voice wasn’t really that big (at least at that time). But she does achieve what she has chosen to do, unlike some others we know of (see mp3 above).
I have a nice ticket to Ariodante in San Fran (and Nat in Lucia) Why do you bring it up, Sanford? Good news i hope as im looking forward to it…